A blood-soaked cocaine frenzy on the streets of Carlton

A World War I veteran turned addict committed a shocking murder in Lygon St, but once he sobered up had no memory of his crime.

Charles Sydney Johnson, who killed his partner Kathleen Price in front of her daughter.

At 2am on December 2, 1923, a nine-year-old girl ran into the Carlton police station in her nightdress and cried, “The man has Mummy by the hair and is going to cut her throat.”

The man was her mother’s partner, Charles Sydney Johnson, who was shocked when he woke the next day from his cocaine-induced rage to learn he had killed the love of his life.

The story is told in the latest episode of the free In Black and White podcast on Australia’s forgotten characters, with historian Deb Robinson, general manager of Geelong Gaol Museum and host of the Locked Up With History podcast:

Johnson was a returned World War I soldier and cocaine addict who was most likely introduced to the drug as a painkiller after he was shot in the leg.

“There were quite a number of his friends that would testify at the trial later on, saying that when he took cocaine he would become completely erratic and mad,” Ms Robinson says.

“He punched out one of his lifelong friends, and when he came to, he basically had absolutely no memory of why or what he had done.”

By 1923, Johnson was living with his de facto partner, Kathleen Price, in a Lygon St boarding house, with her daughter Doris in an adjoining room.

Until the night of the murder, the trio were believed to be a happy, loving family, with Doris even calling Johnson “Daddy”.

“It wasn’t until that night of the murder that everything went south,” Ms Robinson says.

That night, Johnson picked up Price at the end of her waitressing shift at a city cafe.

“Kathleen woke Doris and took her back to her own bed and gave her a kiss and pulled up the covers and said goodnight,” Ms Robinson says.

“The next thing that woke Doris up was hearing her mother’s scream.

“Now Doris went into her parents’ room to see Charles had her mother on the floor by the hair, pulling her throat back, and was trying to saw at her throat with a table knife.”

Geelong Gaol.

Doris ran for help and when police arrived, Johnson was standing dressed in a suit completely soaked with blood.

“There was blood still dripping off his hands – that’s how bad this was – and (he was) very obviously drunk,” Ms Robinson says.

Old Geelong Gaol manager Deb Robinson.

When Johnson woke the next morning in the city watch-house, he had no idea where he was or why.

Describing the moment, one newspaper article said “his screams echoed through the hallways”.

“He looked at his hands to see them covered in blood and had absolutely no recollection of what he did,” Ms Robinson says.

Johnson died while he was imprisoned at Geelong Gaol.

To find out more, listen to the interview in the free In Black and White podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or web.

See In Black & White in the Herald Sun newspaper every Friday for more stories and photos from Victoria’s past.